Brooms are commonly used to sweep, collect, clear and otherwise clean or move material on surfaces such as floors, walls and the like. They are often used in conjunction with other equipment such as scraping devices, brushes, shovels, and the like. Many broom users therefore also use separate pieces of equipment to perform other operations during a cleaning process.
One common example of a cleaning process involving the use of multiple devices involves the use of a broom to move large amounts of material distributed across a surface into a pile, then the pile is removed from the surface using a shovel. A further example involves the use of a shovel or other instrument with a hard thin edge to remove material stuck to the surface by a scraping action, or to remove material from cracks or grooves in the surface, then the use of a broom to sweep or collect the material removed from the surface into a pile, and then the use of a shovel to remove the pile from the surface. A further example is found in maintaining the edge between a grass lawn and a paved or concrete surface. Often one implement cuts the grass where it spills over onto the paved or concrete surface, another sweeps the cut grass into a pile, and still another shovels the pile of grass elsewhere.
While it is possible to use a different implement for each of the multiple operations in such cleaning processes, there are various disadvantages associated with doing so. A user must own and maintain multiple implements, each of which take up separate space while stored or transported, and each of which comes at its own cost. Furthermore, if a user is cleaning a large area, it may be difficult, impractical and inefficient to carry or move multiple implements.
In many scenarios where other functions along with sweeping, for example scraping, cutting and shoveling, among other operations, are all desirable in a cleaning process, it may be cheaper, quicker, easier and generally more efficient for only one implement to be used.
There are brooms currently available that include a non-removable attachment which can be used for scraping or shoveling, but these brooms can be limited in their functionality, as the fixed nature of the attachment means that if it breaks, the broom can no longer be used for an additional purpose. These brooms with fixed attachments do not provide a user with the ability to remove the attachment, which would be useful for increasing manoeuvrability, as well as making storage easier. A further issue is that the nature of a fixed attachment means that the broom is only given the extra functionality associated with that one particular fixed attachment, even though the user may want to perform different operations with the broom on different occasions.
Many existing brooms with blades are designed so that the broom and the blade are unitary, and in some cases made of plastic material. In these existing devices, the fixed connection between broom and blade is often weak and prone to failure. When comprised of a plastics material, regardless of the connection mechanism, the blade is often not suitable for cutting and scooping, and especially not suitable for scraping rough or uneven surfaces due to its lack of strength. Existing plastic blade edges also can be easily blunted or cracked after use on rough surfaces.
Metal blades found on existing brooms often have straight edges and sharp corners. Such a blade can be unsuitable for rough and uneven surfaces as either the entire length of the blade edge must be in contact with the work surface, or just the corner.
Finally, many existing brooms that include a blade are not adapted to also be used to shovel or otherwise transport the accumulated debris or swept material.
Furthermore, many blades will accumulate material on the underside of the blade during use, and are not adapted to easily clear this material.